Effect of the Bucket and Nozzle Dimension on the Performance of a Pelton Water Turbine

Abstract

Pelton turbine is an engine that facilitates continuous power as a wheel or a rotor continually turns due to the pressure of fast moving water through the bucket, where a bucket receives water from the surging nozzle. The objective of this research is to investigate the highest efficiency among different types of Pelton turbine through the modification of bucket volume, bucket angle attack, nozzle needle seat ring, and nozzle needle tip. The experiment was conducted at Energy Conversion Laboratory of Sebelas Maret University. The comparative study among the different parameters shows that the value of maximum efficiency was 21.65%, which was obtained at 90° needle seat ring and 45° needle tip, and +15% bucket size and 92° angle of attack. It was gained likely due to the lightness of the +15% bucket compared to the standard bucket and the collision produced by the jet water in the middle of the bucket, in which the water loading occupied the large area on the surface of the bucket and promoted the increasing speed. It is expected that the result on the appropriate size and angle attack of bucket at specific nozzle seat ring and nozzle tip of this experiment can be manufactured commercially in the future for achieving maximum Pelton turbine efficiency.

Estimated Power Output from a Simplified Pico Hydropower System

“…From the general behaviour of the curves, if the flow rate and net head can be fixed for a system, then a clue as to the approximate nozzle area ratio required will be obtained which is beneficial in obtaining some other parameters. This agrees with the presentation of [86,96,97,[103][104][105][106] of an expression for determining the approximate diameter of the water jet required as = 0.54 [ ⁄ ] . , where are the coefficient of discharge and = maximum flow rate delivered by the nozzle.…”

Experimental Investigation of the Influence of Penstock Configuration and Angle of Twist of Flat Blades on the Performance of a Simplified Pico-Hydro System

“…The water jet produced by the first configuration had higher kinetic energy and was probably more focused on the surface of the turbine blades, thereby producing a higher torque on the shaft. This agrees with conventional turbine practice [111]- [125]. The maximum power obtained from the study coinciding with the 90° twist angle were 3636 and 2422 W respectively for penstock configurations 1 and 2 respectively.…”

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“…Figures 12 to 14 show the relationship between the system"s computed power with NOB, BTA and HBR for the various PODs. The figures bear some resemblance to Figures 6 to 8 expectedly because the power generated in a conventional hydropower system depends more or less directly on N A (Alnakhlani et al 2015, Ridzuan et al 2015, Chukwuneke et al 2014, Yadav and Chauhan, 2014, Katre and Bapat 2014, Ho-yan 2012, Ho-yan 2011, Pengchang et al 2006. In Figure 14, however, the variation of the computed power with BTA for POD = 20 mm did not resemble the pattern shown in Figure 8.…”